By Mike McCarthy
The return of Gotham means the return of Jim Gordon and what he stands for in the city that he loves. When we lost saw Gotham, Barbara Kean was being arrested for murder, Selina Kyle had joined up with the Penguin who is now the self-proclaimed king of Gotham. On the other side of the coin, Bruce had found what appears to be the start of the Batcave behind a hidden passage in the study that he has spent all of his time. We don’t know what is behind the hidden passage when the first season ended, but we do now.
Bruce and Alfred have taken the stairs down the passageway to find a steel door with an electronic lock on it keeping it’s secret protected. Throughout the episode Bruce and Alfred are trying to open the door, by entering every code combination possible, until Bruce hits the breaking point. Bruce decides it’s time to get that bad boy open and wants to make a homemade bomb out of fertilizer and blow it open. After Alfred tries to persuade him not to do it, he decides to join him and show him how to make the bomb correctly, so as to not blow himself up. After succeeding in opening the door, we find that there is in fact another office and that the code to open it was in actuality Bruce (27823). In the office Bruce finds a note that his father had written to him, most likely just days before his murder telling him that, “You can’t have happiness and the truth. Please choose happiness, unless you have a calling…a true calling.” We all know where that is pointing in the long run, and if you don’t then just stop reading now.
I am still very confused about what decade Gotham is supposed to take place. I have mentioned this in previous reviews, but when I see cars from the 80’s and then smart phones and flat panel computer monitors, it is just a mixture of decades and it is confusing. For any regular viewer that didn’t know much about the backstory of Batman they may not think too much about it. Myself, when I know that Bruce Wayne was 12 back in the 60’s or 70’s when computers weren’t around and every film depicts that, it’s a little disconcerting. Pick a decade and make all of the surrounding artifacts match that decade and be done with it. Okay, back to the actual review.
Jim Gordon has been demoted to a traffic cop, the most mundane job for a cop, especially if you were solving murders and crimes as a detective. His life and love with Lee is flourishing in the wake of what happened with Barbara at the end of last season. After stopping a whacked out man in basically hockey pads, ( thinking back to the Dark Knight) who has taken a hostage, Gordon is fired from the force for pushing another office. Gordon wanting back on the force, goes to Penguin to ask for a favor, to get Loeb to leave the PD and get Gordon’s job back. A pretty hefty favor, in which Penguin agrees, if Gordon does a just as hefty favor. He has to recover 70 grand from what was owed to Falcone before he “retired” from someone who wants nothing to do with Penguin. Gordon does the favor, with a few casualties, including the guy he had to recover the money from.
Penguin has always had a soft spot for Gordon, for good reason since he let him live in the premiere of the show last season. Penguin does as promised and gets Loeb to leave the PD and Captain Essen is the new Commissioner, which guarantees Gordon gets his job back. Will Gordon and Penguin keep each other in check as the show goes on, we will see but I am hoping we see more of the evil side of Penguin towards Gordon as the seasons go on. Gordon has a very casual relationship with some of the villains in the show, and I guess you have to give a little to get a little when it comes to info at the start of your career. How far that will proceed will be interesting to see.
There is the introduction of a few new villains for the season including Theo Galavan, who seems to be the main antagonist this season along with this sister Tabitha aka Tigress. The two of them break Barbara, Jerome aka Joker and Sionis out of Arkham to join his mission, which has yet to be told. This season is know as the ‘Rise of the Villains’, and this episode is certainly a good start. Last season we saw a lot of villains in the premiere and then it simmered down a little bit, I hope this season isn’t like that. I want to see more of the Red Hood and more of a development of Joker as well as the other villains.
The season premiere was all it cracked up to be and more. We see what happened while the show was gone, the opening the of a hidden office and how crazy Barbara has become while in Arkham. Gordon is holding it together and is moving forward with his future with Lee, but how far can it go if in the future Barbara is supposed to be his wife. Only time will tell what happens with that relationship and who ends up with whom.
Andrew Cristi